CHAPTER 193

CHAPTER 193
The operations room at Cole Entertainment had not slept in three days.

Coffee cups littered every surface. Jackets lay abandoned over chairs. Screens glowed relentlessly, maps layered over satellite feeds, traffic patterns bleeding into terrain charts. The hum of machines mixed with murmured voices, radios crackling, keyboards tapping without pause. Exhaustion hung over the room like a low fog, but no one dared slow down.

Matteo stood at the center of it all, hands braced against the edge of the main table, eyes fixed on the shifting data in front of him. His face was drawn, his jaw permanently clenched, the lines around his eyes deeper than they had ever been. Every passing minute felt stolen.

Felix paced behind him, phone pressed to his ear, coordinating with police units scattered across the city and beyond. Somewhere in the background, officers debated search zones, terrain difficulty, and probability curves. None of it mattered yet. They still didn’t know where Adrian had taken them.

Ethan sat slightly apart from the chaos, hunched over his laptop, headphones on, fingers flying. He hadn’t spoken in several minutes, which, in Ethan terms, meant something was forming.

Suddenly, he straightened.

“Wait,” he said.

The room quieted instinctively.

Matteo turned immediately. “What is it?”

Ethan pulled off one ear cup. “Adrian’s phone.”

Felix frowned. “We’ve already tried tracking it. It’s been offline since day one.”

“That’s because it’s been powered down manually,” Ethan replied. “But it wasn’t a personal phone.”

Matteo narrowed his eyes. “Explain.”

“It was issued through Cole Entertainment,” Ethan said. “Corporate procurement. Which means the company has the serial number and backend access rights.”

A ripple of alertness spread through the room.

“You’re saying…” Felix began.

“I’m saying,” Ethan cut in, “that with the serial number and authorization, I can force the device to power on remotely.”

Matteo’s heart slammed against his ribs. “Then do it.”

Ethan held up a finger. “There’s a catch.”

Of course there was.

“The moment it powers on, Adrian will notice,” Ethan continued. “If it just lights up without context, he’ll shut it down again immediately. We’ll get nothing.”

Matteo’s voice was low. “So what do we need?”

“A reason for him to answer,” Ethan said. “And someone to keep him talking.”

Silence followed.

Everyone knew the answer before it was spoken.

The door at the far end of the room opened quietly.

Viviana stepped inside.

She looked smaller than she had days ago, wrapped in a plain coat, her hair pulled back hastily. Her eyes were red-rimmed, but there was resolve there now, something steadier than fear. She had been questioned for hours, warned, threatened, and released only because she had nothing concrete left to give.

Until now.

Matteo turned toward her. “There’s something you can do.”

She nodded immediately. “I’ll do it.”

Felix hesitated. “You need to understand the risk.”

“I do,” Viviana said. Her voice shook, but she didn’t back down. “He has my father. He has Amelia. I helped create this mess. I’m not running from it.”

Ethan slid a document across the table. “This is the phone’s serial access. Once I trigger it, you’ll have a very small window.”

Viviana swallowed. “What do I say?”

“Whatever keeps him talking,” Matteo said quietly.

She nodded again. “I can do that.”

No one commented when she added, softer, “I still don’t want him to die.”

That sentence landed heavier than anyone expected.

Ethan typed rapidly, then paused. “Okay,” he said. “Phone is live. You’ll need to call now.”

The room fell completely silent.

Viviana took the phone Felix handed her. Her fingers trembled slightly as she stared at the screen. Then she inhaled deeply and pressed call.

Inside the cabin, tension still hung thick in the air.

Vincent had not moved since Amelia’s words had cut through the room like a blade. He sat rigidly, chained, his gaze fixed on her with a mixture of pain, disbelief, and something far more dangerous - uncertainty. Adrian stood near the table, gun still in hand, eyes darting between them, feeding on the fracture that had opened so suddenly.

Then the phone rang.

The sound was sharp, jarring, completely out of place.

Adrian froze.

For a long second, he simply stared at the phone lying on the table as if it had grown teeth. Slowly, cautiously, he picked it up.

“Viviana?” he said when he saw the caller ID. “How did you - why are you calling me?”

Her voice came through shaky but controlled. “Adrian… please listen to me.”

His eyes flicked instinctively to Vincent and Amelia before he turned slightly away. “Where are you?” he demanded.

“That doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “What matters is that this isn’t over yet. You can still stop.”

Adrian scoffed. “Did they make you call me?”

“No,” she lied, then corrected herself, her voice breaking. “I’m calling because I’m scared. The police are everywhere. They’re saying you’re armed and dangerous. They’re saying you killed someone. Adrian I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” She said between sobs.

His grip tightened on the phone. “I didn’t mean to.”

“I know,” Viviana whispered. “But intent won’t matter if you keep going. Please, Adrian. Turn yourself in.”

Silence crackled over the line.

“I don’t want my baby to grow up without a father,” she said suddenly.

Across the operations room, several heads snapped up.

Matteo’s breath caught.

Ethan froze mid-gesture.

Felix stared at her, stunned.

The word hung in the air like a dropped glass.

Adrian went very still.

“…baby?” he repeated.

Viviana closed her eyes. “I’m still pregnant Adrian…. Please come back for the sake of our baby.”

For a heartbeat, something almost human flickered across Adrian’s face. Confusion. Shock. Maybe even fear.

Then suspicion crept in.

“Wait,” he said slowly. “Is this a trick?”

“No,” she insisted. “This is real. I need you alive. I need you to come back.”

Adrian’s expression hardened. “They’re trying to trace me,” he said. “You’re keeping me talking.”

“Adrian, please…”

He pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it, jaw tight. Then, with sudden violence, he hurled it across the room. The device shattered against the wall, skidding across the floor in pieces.

The call went dead.

Back in the operations room, the silence shattered.

Ethan ripped off his headset and looked up. “That’s enough.”

Matteo stepped forward. “You have something.”

Ethan nodded, already pulling up coordinates. “Not exact, but we have a radius. He’s off-grid. Rural. Heavy vegetation. Somewhere north of the city, beyond standard cell coverage.”

Police radios came alive instantly.

“We move now,” one officer said. “This is our best shot.”

Viviana swayed slightly, her phone slipping from her fingers. Matteo caught her before she could fall.

“I want to be there,” she said immediately. “Please.”

Felix frowned. “That’s not safe.”

“He might listen to me,” Viviana said desperately. “He might remember the baby.”

The lead officer hesitated. “We can’t guarantee…”

“I helped you find him,” she interrupted. “Let me help you stop this without more blood.”

The room held its breath.

Finally, the officer nodded slowly. “You stay behind the perimeter. One move out of line and you’re removed. Understood?”

Viviana nodded fiercely. “Understood.”

As the team mobilized, sirens lighting up the night beyond the windows, Matteo turned back to the map, his heart pounding.

They were closer now.

But not close enough.

And inside a cabin hidden deep in the woods, two captives sat chained, a gun between them and the man who refused to let go of the story he believed.

The hunt had begun in earnest.

And there was no room left for mistakes.